Venture Leaders China – Meet Michael Friedrich of DistalMotion
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In mid-September 2018, the Venture Leaders China team will embark on a unique business development journey for 10 days. Today, we get to know more about team member Michael Friedrich of Distalmotion, and learn about his motivations for applying to the program.
Who are you and what is Distalmotion briefly?I am the CEO of DistalMotion, a Swiss medical device company enabling every operating room to benefit from robotics. Our goal is to democratize robotic surgery. With our advanced surgical devices, we aim at simplifying surgical procedures with improved dexterity, control and ergonomics, while lowering the costs of operations.
In urology, gynecology and general surgery, millions of procedures a year could benefit from the advantages of robotic surgery. Today, existing robots cover about a quarter of these procedures. The remaining surgeries are done using manual laparoscopic instruments. To convert them to robotic procedures, robots must become simple and affordable. We are in a unique and strong position to achieve this.
What attracted you to China as a business development destination?
China offers substantial commercial opportunities, with potentially up to 2,000 hospitals as targets for our surgical robots.
What do you hope to achieve from the trip? What are your expectations?
We hope to better understand how to do business in China, comprehend the local business culture and find potential partners to bring our surgical robots to China.
Why is Venture Leaders China beneficial for your startup?
Venture Leaders is a structured and high-paced program for getting a good sense of China and its market ecosystem.
What is pushing you towards international expansion?
We work in the medical field and medical devices are a global business. International expansion is a logical step.
What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the Chinese market?
Finding good partners will no be an easy task.
What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?
China is a huge and powerful country. It is redefining the world and I am really excited to learn more about it.
Follow the Venture Leaders China roadshow on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #vleadersChina.
Venture Leaders China is co-organized by Venturelab and swissnex China, and supported by digitalswitzerland, Canton de Vaud, Canton of Zurich, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich and Gebert Rüf Stiftung.
